COMESA

The Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) was established by a treaty signed on 5 November 1993 in Kampala, Uganda. The agreement was ratified a year later in Lilongwe, Malawi on 8 December 1994. The COMESA treaty builds on an earlier preferential trade agreement and is aimed at creating a common market in Eastern and Southern Africa.

In October 2008, the member states of COMESA, the East African Community (EAC, with five members) and the Southern Africa Development Cooperation (SADC, with 14 members) agreed to merge as one giant 26-member tripartite free trade area (TFTA). (There is some overlap in membership among the current blocs.) This will take some time, as the three have different levels of economic integration.

As of late 2016, the implementation of the TFTA still faced unresolved issues, including tariff offers, rules of origin, trade remedies and dispute settlement.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has conducted training workshops for stakeholders in transit trade in preparation for the implementation of regional trade facilitation instruments.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is working with the government of Western Australia to develop a harmonised regional mineral policy focusing on the legal and regulatory framework.

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) have launched the COMESA virtual trade facilitation system (CVTFS) aimed at tracking the movement of cargo to curb illicit trade.

The Zambian government in collaboration with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has put in place a committee which will look at ways and means of increasing exports to the Africa Growth Opportunity Act market in the United States of America.

A technical team from the Ministry of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism last week held a meeting with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) Secretariat over the progress of the local sugar industry.

The history of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) began in December 1994, when it was formed to replace the Preferential Trade Area (PTA), which had existed from the earlier days of 1981.

African Development Bank is stepping in to help East and South African region accelerate the push towards a common currency status. To achieve this, it has drafted a stringent set of financial guidelines to steer the process.

Kenyan firms — regardless of their size — can now sue the government in the Common Market for Southern Africa (Comesa) Court of Justice, the highest in the intergovernmental organisation, if its actions break rules of the trading bloc.

Economic experts have supported the recent decision taken by the government of Uganda to join the COMESA FTA, saying it would increase the volume of Ugandan exports to the COMESA FTA and promote the country’s economic growth.

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